Breastfeeding is the recommended method to provide nutrients to a newborn child for the first year of life. Many mothers, however, return to work soon after giving birth, have difficulty breastfeeding their newborns, or have challenges breastfeeding for other reasons. As a result, many mothers rely on breast pumping to express their breast milk and use bottles to feed their newborns. Since a mother might need to pump as often as eight times a day to maintain her milk supply and/or prevent breast engorgement, it is essential that each breast pumping session be as efficient as possible—i.e., emptying as much milk from the breast as possible, in the shortest amount of time.
Breast pumps operate by applying a suction on the breast for a short period of time, during which a small amount of milk is expressed. The breast pump then releases the suction and repeats the cycle of on suction/off suction until the breast is empty. The amount of vacuum applied to the breast during one cycle of on suction/off suction, referred to as a waveform, is controlled by the breast pump by adjusting the applied voltage and/or current to an internal vacuum motor and solenoid, to mimic the baby feeding on the breast. Typical breast pumps allow the mother to adjust the cycle speed and the amount of suction, in an attempt to maximize efficiency of the pump. It is still often challenging, however, to adjust a breast pump to work efficiently.
Therefore, it would be ideal to have a breast pump that worked efficiently to prevent breast engorgement. Ideally, such a breast pump would empty as much milk from the breast as possible, in a short amount of time. Additionally, such a breast pump would also ideally be easy to adjust for an individual woman's specific needs. At least some of these objectives are addressed by the following disclosure.